Australian Open 2021: “I don’t write the rules,” Ashleigh Barty on Muchova’s medical timeout


Australian Open 2021: “I don’t write the rules,” Ashleigh Barty on Muchova’s medical timeout

Hot favorite and top-ranked Ashleigh Barty was upset on Wednesday by No. 25-seeded Karolina Muchova in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. Barty utterly dominated Muchova in the opening set, continuing the dominant run she had been on this year at Melbourne Park.

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She won 25 points, to Muchova’s 11, made just six unforced errors and was playing a brand of tennis which would have had the remaining four women – including Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka – more than a little nervous at the prospect of facing her deep at the tournament.

But a controversial injury timeout flipped the match on its head. Muchova used the break not to seek treatment for a previous abdominal injury, but to compose herself. But after an almost 10 minute break, the Czech reeled off 11 of the next 15 games to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 and send Barty crashing out of her home Slam. That 10-minute pause proved to be the catalyst for a stunning turnaround, and one which will likely haunt Barty for some time.

“It’s heartbreaking, without a doubt”: Ashleigh Barty

Despite the controversial timeout, Barty said that what her opponent did was within the rules and it was on her that she let her momentum shift.

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“It’s a disappointment today, without a doubt,” Barty said in the press conference. “I would have loved to have done better and just been a little bit sharper the next game [after the medical timeout]. I just made a couple of loose errors in that game. I think for the rest of the set, that was the story.”

“It’s within the rules where she’s within her rights to take that time and if she wasn’t within the rules the the physios and the doctors would have said so. So I think that’s you know that’s that’s the laws of our game is that we have those medical timeouts for for cases that are needed and and obviously she needed that today but uh completely within the rules for her to take that”, she said on Muchova’s timeout.

When asked whether the rules should be altered, she said: “I don’t write the rules. I abide by them or all of us players we abide by the rules that are written and it’s not my place to comment here. Whether she had an injury or not that’s the physios and the doctors and obviously that she’s taken her medical time out meant that there was something wrong so she was she was within the rules and within the guidelines to take that time.”

She concluded, “It’s heartbreaking, without a doubt. But we go through everything and learn through all of these experiences. Will it deter me, will it ruin the fact we’ve had a really successful start to our season? Absolutely not.”

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Also read: Australian Open 2021: “I was a bit lost on the court and my head was spinning”, Karolina Muchova on why she took a medical timeout